Lessons and (Carols? no, Schütz...)
Voice Lesson: €50 (free after reimbursement next week!)
Organ Lesson: €25 (also free)
Singing some Schütz: Priceless
First, Schwanensee last night! It was OK....totally traditional ballet, which was good and bad, I guess. I decided to stand in the Balkon for the first time, because I've gotten mixed reviews about standing there since the overhang cuts off some of your view, and you're forced to stand way over to the side....frankly, I liked it....it was way less crowded, and I was there early enough that I got a spot that was barely obstructed at all...and even though I was off to the side, I was way closer to the stage than I would have been at the same angle in the galerie, and I liked being close enough to really distinguish faces and such....anyway, the music was OK, and beside the two people who tripped and fell, the dancing was executed very well. I just I just never realized before how intrinsically limited the movements of ballet are....or at least they were in this choreography. (which, if I understood the German, was adapted from the very original choreography from the debut in St. Petersburg) So after a while....it just got a bit boring! And I hate saying that, because all cultured people enjoy the ballet, it seems.....but I think that this was just not an amazing choreography, or at least one not good enough to win me into the fold. The music was good though, and the last scene with the flood was done very, very well.
Anyway, today was a big day for music-making! Before my voice lesson at 11:00 I went to IES to make copies of the Mozart concert aria I was going to sing at my lesson. Luckily, Birgit was there and copied it for me with her code/key/whatever. (she was copying "Leichte Stücke für Gitarre," so it was probably OK for her to let me copy my stuff....) In any case, my voice lesson, was OK, nothing out of the ordinary. My progress is good, but obviously isn't exponential or anything like that. After my lesson I rushed back to school for back-to-back rehearsals with the Schütz group. To recap, I got together a group of 6 of the vocalists to do the Musikalische Exequien (the piece the Glee Club did two Springs ago), and today was our first rehearsal! The men rehearsed first....Dave didn't show up....apparently he had a "brain fart," but it'll be fine, because not only is it WAY easier for me to try and play two parts than three, and the bass part in this kind of music is SO easy to hear, especially with the keyboard part playing it almost exactly. The rehearsals each went very well, and I think that the singers like the piece. They'll really like it once they hear it all together, though...I'm so excited for next Thursday's combined rehearsals!!
After the Schütz rehearsals I had a bit of free time, and then I headed off to Marianum for my organ lesson. Again, it was good, no major progress had been made since my last lesson (probably because I didn't practice in the interim) but the lesson itself was good. We started this piece that David wanted me to start working on: Berceuse, by Vierne. It's a strange piece, and it's especially strange because I really only have 1 or 2 registration options for it, as opposed to the 3 that it requires (plus a swell box for the diminuendos....I'm happily ignoring all of them!) I stayed behind, as usual, to practice, and on my way out I walked right in the middle (literally) of a fencing match in the hallway. It took me quite offguarde [sic] to see these random people fencing in the hallway of a school at 7:30 at night, but what are you going to do? (I was personally rooting for the black guy, but the white guy seems pretty good too....) After that strange experience I went home and did nothing of particular interest before going to bed.
Organ Lesson: €25 (also free)
Singing some Schütz: Priceless
First, Schwanensee last night! It was OK....totally traditional ballet, which was good and bad, I guess. I decided to stand in the Balkon for the first time, because I've gotten mixed reviews about standing there since the overhang cuts off some of your view, and you're forced to stand way over to the side....frankly, I liked it....it was way less crowded, and I was there early enough that I got a spot that was barely obstructed at all...and even though I was off to the side, I was way closer to the stage than I would have been at the same angle in the galerie, and I liked being close enough to really distinguish faces and such....anyway, the music was OK, and beside the two people who tripped and fell, the dancing was executed very well. I just I just never realized before how intrinsically limited the movements of ballet are....or at least they were in this choreography. (which, if I understood the German, was adapted from the very original choreography from the debut in St. Petersburg) So after a while....it just got a bit boring! And I hate saying that, because all cultured people enjoy the ballet, it seems.....but I think that this was just not an amazing choreography, or at least one not good enough to win me into the fold. The music was good though, and the last scene with the flood was done very, very well.
Anyway, today was a big day for music-making! Before my voice lesson at 11:00 I went to IES to make copies of the Mozart concert aria I was going to sing at my lesson. Luckily, Birgit was there and copied it for me with her code/key/whatever. (she was copying "Leichte Stücke für Gitarre," so it was probably OK for her to let me copy my stuff....) In any case, my voice lesson, was OK, nothing out of the ordinary. My progress is good, but obviously isn't exponential or anything like that. After my lesson I rushed back to school for back-to-back rehearsals with the Schütz group. To recap, I got together a group of 6 of the vocalists to do the Musikalische Exequien (the piece the Glee Club did two Springs ago), and today was our first rehearsal! The men rehearsed first....Dave didn't show up....apparently he had a "brain fart," but it'll be fine, because not only is it WAY easier for me to try and play two parts than three, and the bass part in this kind of music is SO easy to hear, especially with the keyboard part playing it almost exactly. The rehearsals each went very well, and I think that the singers like the piece. They'll really like it once they hear it all together, though...I'm so excited for next Thursday's combined rehearsals!!
After the Schütz rehearsals I had a bit of free time, and then I headed off to Marianum for my organ lesson. Again, it was good, no major progress had been made since my last lesson (probably because I didn't practice in the interim) but the lesson itself was good. We started this piece that David wanted me to start working on: Berceuse, by Vierne. It's a strange piece, and it's especially strange because I really only have 1 or 2 registration options for it, as opposed to the 3 that it requires (plus a swell box for the diminuendos....I'm happily ignoring all of them!) I stayed behind, as usual, to practice, and on my way out I walked right in the middle (literally) of a fencing match in the hallway. It took me quite offguarde [sic] to see these random people fencing in the hallway of a school at 7:30 at night, but what are you going to do? (I was personally rooting for the black guy, but the white guy seems pretty good too....) After that strange experience I went home and did nothing of particular interest before going to bed.
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